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• Ph.D., Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins University
• B.A., Philosophy, Indiana University, Bloomington
• B.A., Bioethics, Indiana University, Bloomington

Dr. Summer Johnson McGee has served as 91³Ô¹ÏÍø’s 13th president since July 1, 2025. President McGee brings a distinguished record of enrollment growth, fundraising success, academic innovation and mission-driven leadership to Lenoir-Rhyne. She is the first woman to lead the university in its history. 

McGee is nationally recognized as a growth-oriented higher education leader with a proven ability to strengthen institutions through enrollment growth strategies, philanthropic momentum, strategic innovation and renewed public confidence. Across her presidencies, she has built a strong record of reversing enrollment challenges, expanding institutional reach, improving financial performance and engaging donors, alumni, students and community partners around a compelling vision for the future.

In her first year as president at Lenoir-Rhyne, McGee led Lenoir-Rhyne through one of the most significant enrollment cycles in the university’s history. Under her leadership, LR launched the Lenoir-Rhyne Tuition-Free Guarantee, transformed its scholarship strategies, generated more applications than the previous two years combined, and made the Class of 2030 the largest incoming class in university history.

President McGee has produced historic fundraising success as well. Lenoir-Rhyne achieved the highest annual fundraising total in institutional history, raising $19.7 million, including the largest annual total ever for The Fund for Lenoir-Rhyne. The university saw record participation in Bears Give Back Day and LTSS Day of Giving, crossed the $82 million threshold in the Charge Forward comprehensive campaign and completed fundraising for the Cromer Center renovation.

In addition to enrollment and fundraising growth, President McGee guided the development of Shine Ever Brighter, a new three-year strategic plan providing a clear roadmap for LR’s future. The plan reflects the university’s renewed focus on affordability, student success, service excellence, academic distinctiveness and institutional growth. During President McGee’s first year, LR updated its mission, vision and values statements for the first time in nearly 30 years, added eight new academic programs, completed a housing study to improve residential facilities and the student experience, developed plans to expand Asheville campus, and signed a purchase and sale agreement for the Columbia campus.

Before joining Lenoir-Rhyne, McGee served from 2021 to 2025 as president of Salem Academy and College, where she led a successful enrollment and financial turnaround. At Salem, she delivered three consecutive years of growth in incoming class size, improved student academic qualifications, expanded geographic reach, strengthened fundraising performance and helped restore confidence in the institution’s future.

Prior to Salem, McGee served at the University of New Haven as the founding dean of the School of Health Sciences and as a tenured associate professor of management in the Pompea College of Business. A nationally recognized leader in public health, health administration, and health sciences education, she has built her academic career at the intersection of ethics, health policy and healthcare innovation.

McGee serves on the Executive Committee and as Chair of the Communications Committee of the Council of Independent Colleges Board of Directors. She also serves the Executive Committee of the North Carolina Council of Independent Colleges. McGee is also a member of the Catawba County Chamber of Commerce, the Novant Health Triad Region Board, the Rotary Club of Hickory and Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Hickory.

A native of Wheatfield, Indiana, McGee earned bachelor’s degrees in philosophy and bioethics from Indiana University Bloomington, where she received the Henry B. Wells award, the institution’s highest honor for an undergraduate student. She then earned a Ph.D. in health policy and management from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health. She and her husband, Dr. Glenn McGee, an academic who served for 31 years as a professor and academic administrator, live in Hickory. She is a parent to their three adult sons, Ethan, Austin, and Aidan and to their Maine Coon cat, Sam.